Summary: When people facing uncertainty about an important identity goal are pushed to question the validity of their own doubts, their commitment to that goal actually increases. Research shows that inducing metacognitive doubt—doubt about one’s own doubts—can turn ambivalence into renewed motivation.
In two experiments, participants who felt insecure about achieving an important goal became more committed when their confidence in their own thoughts was disrupted. The findings highlight how subtle cognitive changes can influence perseverance, but also caution that this approach should be used carefully to avoid fostering overconfidence.
Key facts
Metacognitive doubt: Inducing doubt in a person’s own thoughts led them to question their negative beliefs about their goals. Change in commitment: People who were unsure about an important life goal became more committed when their confidence in the thought was reduced. Two experiments: writing tasks and non-dominant hand methods produced the same effect, showing robust changes in goal engagement.
Source: Ohio State University
When it comes to our most important long-term goals in life, it is not uncommon to face obstacles that can lead us to doubt whether we can achieve our ambitions.
But when life presents you with doubts, the answer may be to question them, a new study suggests.
A psychology professor found that when people who were concerned about achieving an identity goal were induced to experience what is called metacognitive doubt, they actually became more committed to achieving their goal.
“What this study found is that inducing doubt in one’s doubts can provide a formula for trust,” said Patrick Carroll, an author of the study and a professor of psychology at Ohio State University in Lima.
The study was recently published online in the journal Self and Identity.
Carroll was interested in what happens when people have what is called an “action crisis” while pursuing an identity goal: a long-term goal focused on who they want to become in life. Wanting to be a doctor, for example, is an identity goal.
An action crisis is a decision conflict in which you are not sure you want to continue pursuing the goal.
“When pursuing identity goals, obstacles inevitably arise along the way. There may come a point where the obstacle is large enough to raise questions about whether to continue,” Carroll said.
Most research on the topic has focused specifically on these doubts and how they can affect whether people follow through with their goals.
But based on previous work by other Ohio State researchers, Carroll decided to examine metacognitive doubt, which is a person’s sense of certainty about the validity of their thoughts.
In the case of this research, a person may have doubts about whether they will be able to achieve their goal. But what if you make the person wonder if their doubts are valid?
Carroll conducted two studies. One involved 267 people who participated online. First, they completed a crisis action scale about their most important personal goal. The scale included items such as “I doubt whether I should continue striving toward my goal or disengage from it,” and participants responded on a scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to strongly agree.”
Participants were then told that they would participate in a second, unrelated study on the effect of memory writing exercises. Half of the participants were asked to write about a time when they felt confident in their thinking. The other half were asked to write about a time when they had experienced doubts in their thinking.
After completing the writing exercise, all participants were asked to rate how committed they were to achieving their most important personal goal, on a scale ranging from “not at all committed” to “very committed.”
The findings showed that the writing exercise made people feel more confident or more doubtful in their own thoughts about their goal identity, even though the writing exercise was not directly related to their goals.
Here’s how it worked: Those participants who had doubts about their goal identity (and then wrote about an experience feeling secure) were less committed to achieving their goal. In other words, the writing exercise made them more confident in their doubts about achieving their goal.
On the other hand, those who had doubts about their goal and then wrote about an experience of feeling doubt about their own thoughts actually had higher levels of commitment to their goals. For them, writing about doubt made them question their own doubts about achieving their goal.
“At some level, it may seem like doubt would be cumulative. Doubt plus doubt would equal more doubt,” Carroll said. “But this study found the opposite: doubt more doubt equals less doubt.”
Carroll replicated the findings in another study, involving 130 college students, that used a different way of inducing doubt. In this study, Carroll used a technique developed by researchers at Ohio State in which participants completed the crisis action scale with their non-dominant hand.
“Previous research has shown that using the nondominant hand leads participants to have doubts about their own thoughts because they use their shaky handwriting as a signal that their thoughts must not be valid,” Carroll said.
“And that’s exactly what I found in this study. So in two different studies we found that inducing metacognitive doubt can lead people to doubt their own doubts.”
On a practical level, it can be difficult for individuals to induce doubt about their doubts on their own, Carroll said. One of the reasons it worked in this study is that participants were not aware that the doubt induction was related to their doubts about their goals.
This might be more effective if another person (a therapist, teacher, friend, or parent) can help the person question their own thoughts and doubts.
“You don’t want the person to realize that you’re making them question their doubts about their goals,” he said.
Carroll also noted that this technique should be used carefully, because it could potentially undermine wise judgment if overused or misapplied.
“Humility should not be undermined and replaced with overconfidence or premature certainty,” he said. “This should be used judiciously.”
Key questions answered:
A: They often become more committed to their long-term goal, as less confidence in their doubts weakens the influence of the doubts.
A: Through writing tasks that emphasize past uncertainty and having participants complete scales with their non-dominant hand, which subtly reduced confidence in their own thoughts.
A: Therapists, teachers, or mentors may be able to help others question their doubts. But it should be used carefully to avoid creating overconfidence or distorting healthy self-reflection.
Editorial notes:
This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor. Magazine article reviewed in its entirety. Additional context added by our staff.
About this research news on motivation and psychology.
Author: Jeff Grabmeier
Source: Ohio State University
Contact: Jeff Grabmeier – Ohio State University
Image: Image is credited to Neuroscience News.
Original research: Open access.
“Increasing Commitment to Goal Identity by Inducing Goal Doubt” by Patrick Carroll et al. Self and identity
Abstract
Increase commitment to the identity goal by inducing self-doubt about the goal.
Although most work shows that an action crisis reduces goal commitment, the present work shows that it can lead to greater or lesser commitment depending on whether one is induced to experience metacognitive trust or doubt.
In Study 1, participants first completed the crisis action measure and then wrote about a time when they had experienced confidence or doubt in their thinking.
Next, they completed the measure of commitment to their most important identity goal. As predicted, while people with a higher level of action crisis showed lower commitment than those with a lower level of action crisis when writing about an experience of trust, they showed greater commitment when writing about an experience of doubt.
Study 2 replicated and generalized these findings using a different population and inducing doubt.
Furthermore, Study 2 demonstrated that thought confidence mediated these effects on commitment to the identity goal.
